The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-25
THE LAST OF THE OCoNTEEs.
A Tale Of the Little wildcat.

[NorE-Bue Eagle, the last lineal descendant of
Oeontee. having been displaced in the succession by
lateral branch of the family abandoned the land of
his fathers-seceded, it were-and. iourneyinz to
Che north united his destiny with the Miamis.
Taking the berry-stained hand of the girl in
hers, the old glanced at the fair young
form before her. and with harsh shr1ll voice
that grated upon the ear like the july .soncp
Of Jar fly, she rasped out: Pretty face
pretty hand-but ali, the blood" Then bend
ing forward till the median limo of tho upper
section of her shriveled old body rested upon her
knees and converted her frame into very short
legged and very top-neavy sort of T, she swung
slowly around, describing with her head a com
plete circle without changing the direction of
ner toes Shading her sharp black eyes with
her bony hand. and peering out into the deep
shadows if with her eagle-like vision she
would penetrate the most c&vernous recesses of
the great forest, she swung back into position.
Ae it were. with the apparent of old
fashioned chimney crane, and reminded the
girl of that then familiar commodity. that she
laughed outright. Hist, wench" p;ped the old
bag; and taking again the young girls hand she
repeated. as if to herself, pretty face-pretty
hand-but, alb, those bloody lines, Laugh, child
while ye may, for the time comes. and soon too
when your laughter turns to weeping. and when
this pretty hand" Then drawing back with a
shudder and looking away into the forest, she
yelled with the fe-ceness and savagery of a
demon, Courses upon the degenerate and cow
ardly of Ocontee."
Gliding away meath the underbrush that
skirted the little river hard by the old dame was
soon lost to sight. and Mabel Baileys musical
laughter reverberated again and again through
the trees.
Poor old woman" said Mabel, 81 wonder
49, -
meant by those strange ACTIONS and sayings"
Laughing again at the ridiculous old woman,
she said to herself, "Ah, WELL her curses were
upon the race Of Ocoutee, and goodness knows,
/ never even heard of him before"
The words were scarcely uttered when there
stood before her a tall and not ungainly young
warrior, whose face she we'll reinem bered but
whose name she had never heard
The long-continued peace between the Miau1is
and the whites. and the familiarity with which
the pioneers ard Indians dealt together had so
accustomed even the women to the sight of the
latter that the appearance of the young chief at
this time startled Mabel only by its sudden
Fair maiden" said the Indian in his native
tongue. heed not the chatter of the wizard; to
know her Is to suffer evil. She raised the hand
OF the white man against the great and good
Ocontee, and the blood of Ocontee stained the
grasses of the sunny southland! Ocontee is
dead, but am of his descended, and in the
great forests beyond the mighty rivers, where
the winters come not to blast the leaves and the
flowers. and where the cat-bird and the jay are
nushed not by the storm. 1 am a prince-I. too,
am Ocon:ee! Listen TO the heart of a chief OF
once mighty nation; he will you TO it
Iogether We will fly far away from the haunts
or the wizard; far away from the killing win
ters; far away from the poison winds that pale
the wild roses In the cheek of the madenI"
In the ecstacy Of his enthusiasm the Young
chief advanced toward the girl if he would
clasp her In MS eager arms, but ringing slap
in the face. accompanied by the wild. weird de-
moniac laugh of the wizard, not only checked |
his movement. but almost froze the blood in his |
veins.
For instant he stood as still as a statue,
while the surprised look upon his couhtenance |
was so irresistby comical to cause Mabel to |
burst forth into a peal Of laughter she gath |
away TO the cabin.
Mabel the eldest of the three beautiful /
daughters of Spoon Bailey. pioneer of the Lit /
tie Wildcat country1in fact. the first white 1
to locate his family in the region of what has be-
come the famous natural-gas fields of Indi-
ana" His cabin stood out upon that elevated
plateau about midway between what is now
known as NO 3. and the ''Shrader eushern
and here he lived until Uncle Davv Fosters In
dian supply store overlooked the Little Wildcat
from the north, and became the nucleus Of
settlement
Spoon Bailey was not an unsocial man. but he
loved space; and when the blazes upon the
neigh boring trees indicated a circumscription of
his range, he pulled stakes, turned his face to
the sunset, and tarred not in his travels until
the land of the Mianis was full thousand
leagues to the eastward.
How different now were his snrrouns;,,s,
FROM the dense forests of giant oak and poplar
whose magnificent foliage canopied the earth in
summer, and through whose towering branches
soughed the chilling winds IN winter, he gazed
out upon one unbroken champaign. Further
than the eye could reach. spread the grand
prairie, clothed with purple grasses, and be-
decked with myriads of iowers-waving and
elstening in the sunlight. silently varying their
purple and golden hues, the perfumsladen
hra fnn 4
verdure and kissing more gently than maidens
touch. the rudoy cheeks of the pioneer and fan
ming his brow with the softness of elder down.
Here upon the well-defned banks of the Sioux
far removed from the babtation of civilized
man, Spoon Bailey, breathing the freesr of
Gods pure air spread his tent and erected his
family altar. At peace With all the world, en-
vironed only by nature. ne lighted his pipe and
was happy.
Upon the banks of thu Wildcat and near
where he had last beheld Mabel Bailey, Blue
Eagle the proud defendant of Ocontee sat in |
silence and deep meditation From high noon
until the shadows of night surrounded him, he |
remained as mute and motlonless the rock
upon which he rested.
Springing suddenly to his feet as if bent upon
the immediate execution of some important re-
solve, the young Indian strobe forth in the direc-
ton of his lodge. Twelve full moons had come
md gone, and yet his mind dwelt upon the fair
Mabel and his face burned-not from the blow
planted upon it by the wizard but from the
notification that filled his savage soul as he re- l
mem oered the manifest pleasure Of the object
II his love at bis humiliation. It was the girls
aughter that yet rang his ears, that mad
Tened him, and. as he dwet afresh upon it, I
urned his copper color to carmine. 8
From the Mississippi to the source of the Big
sioux nature held unbroken sway, and the trav- e
'ler to that unexplored land had naught to guide
tim but the stars c
Bailey left no hint of his proposed destination '
1t Is doubtful, In fact, if he had any-and the |
reat length of time that had elapsed since S
us departure naturally bedimmed his trail if S
indeed 1t had not obliterated it But this fact !
resented little if any. difficulty to the Ocoates
With the keen instinct of his race he traced the
Quite OF the Baileys with the accuracy OF a 4
leuth-hound. Silently and alone he moved like Il
phantom across the broad expanse; now stand. a
lg. with folded arms. upon the summit of some C
levation and scanning the distant horizon. and 3
gain Hitting along like a shadow, with his nose Il
H.